


The Count of Monte Cristo

by Scedasticity



Series: Start Again [1]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen, New Game Plus, Sort Of, some things are hard to fix but you can keep them from breaking to start with
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2018-12-25 03:40:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12027351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scedasticity/pseuds/Scedasticity
Summary: After losing to the Holy Grail and fading away in Shibuya, Haru wakes up at the beginning of the school year -- of her first year of high school. It's not ideal, but she'll do what she has to. As soon as she figures out what that is.





	1. APRIL

**Author's Note:**

> _Note 5/6/2018: Upurifutu has been changed to Jikken._
> 
> _Note 5/22/2018: Made a few plot-insignificant additions you can find by searching for 'dream'._

Haru was… somewhat annoyed. 

Logically speaking, a wish to have a second chance, if granted, should have sent her back to when she encountered the Phantom Thieves — perhaps as far back as the beginning of the school year, when Akira had come to Tokyo and first encountered the Metaverse. Back to the start of her _first year in high school_ made no sense. It was also highly inconvenient: most of the Phantom Thieves were still in middle school, and she had no idea where. Besides _outside Tokyo_ , in Akira's case. And Ann and Ryuji were in the same middle school, she thought, but that didn't help her identify which middle school it was. 

She knew where Makoto was, obviously, but it had quickly become clear Makoto didn't remember. Haru reached out to her anyway. They were both so lonely — it hadn't even been a year since Makoto's father died. And maybe some part of Makoto did remember, because they were friends _fast_ , faster than they'd become friends before, even without the unifying force of the Thieves and the Metaverse. It was such a relief not to be isolated.

Haru hadn't tried to tell her the truth, though, because Mako-chan wasn't one to believe outrageous claims with no evidence. And Haru could provide no evidence, because the MetaNav was not on her phone. (She felt like it might have been, if she had the phone she had had — would have? — as a Phantom Thief, but she'd only gotten that phone at the beginning of that year…)

(Some people might have questioned their own sanity, given the lack of evidence. Haru had no time for that.)

And without the MetaNav, which she could likely not acquire until Akira arrived, she couldn't go looking for Mona-chan — not that it would be easy if she did. She didn't know what Mona-chan had been doing, before he'd been captured in Kamoshida's Palace. 

—She couldn't do anything about Kamoshida via his Palace, but she could cast her eyes down, use her softest, most delicate, most _refined_ voice, and say Mr. Kamoshida made her… _uncomfortable_. No, she really couldn't say more… It convinced at least one fellow first-year girl not to try out for the volleyball team. It was better than nothing. 

She knew where Yusuke lived, if not his middle school, but she wasn't sure how to approach him. If she understood correctly he had been illogically loyal to Madarame for quite some time. That didn't completely rule out contacting him somehow, just as a friend, if she could find a justification for it… Perhaps she could start visiting Madarame's exhibits — 'coincidentally' meet him there. It merited consideration.

She initially thought she knew where Futaba was, too, but when she went to Yongen-Jaya, she found an inferior coffeeshop with a different name, and no sign of Futaba or Sakura-san.

…Right. They hadn't been there forever. In fact, Futaba's mother probably wasn't even dead yet. 

…Wait. 

…Maybe she could get the MetaNav immediately, after all.

* * *

Haru was no Futaba, but she knew how to do basic online research. The "Second Detective Prince" wasn't — how would Ryuji put it? — A Thing yet, and no one was talking about "mental shutdowns". There was a little more to be found about "psychotic breakdowns", even after she filtered out articles obviously using the term more generically. The mentions she was sure about only went back maybe… five or six months, and they weren't common, and none of them were people who were particularly important. So, it looked like Akechi was active in the Metaverse, but without the extensive experience he'd passed off as natural aptitude; with everything she'd learned in her time as a Phantom Thief, she _should_ be able to deal with him by herself if she had to.

She only found one mention of Akechi by name, and it was only from early March. Middle school student Goro Akechi had assisted the police in identifying a small-time drug dealer who had a psychotic breakdown. He wasn't described as a detective at all — not even a sleuth — just a concerned citizen (hah!). The article also mentioned Akechi had received a full scholarship to Jikken Academy.

Haru wasn't sure, but she didn't think that was where he'd been in the future. Maybe he'd transferred when his reputation took off. 

At first she considered stalking Akechi until he went into the Metaverse, and she could slip in behind him and get the Nav. But she wasn't sure she'd be much better at stalking than Mako-chan (she'd heard plenty about _that_ ), and Akechi was undoubtedly more difficult — and dangerous — prey. Fortunately it didn't take long to come up with an alternative (and rather poetic) approach. 

Haru left school early, staked out Akechi's school (by the drab gray uniforms, definitely not where he'd been in the future), and caught him as he was leaving. "Excuse me, Akechi-kun? Can I talk to you?"

When he turned, she caught a glimpse of his flat expression before it twisted into something… approximating his smarmy crowd-pleasing smile. She might have thought it was a real smile if she hadn't seen the change. "I'm sorry, have we met…?"

"Not yet." She stepped in closer than was strictly polite. "But we need to talk about how I'm going to be blackmailing you."

The plastic smile didn't slip. "I beg your pardon? And I didn't catch your name."

"It's Haru Okumura, and I should mention that if anything happens to me I've made arrangements for the release of allegations that you are Masayoshi Shido's bastard son and are engaged in illegal errands for him." _Her_ smile was entirely real. "Very vague, yes, but more than enough to make Shido think you're a liability, not an asset. To say nothing of other things you might want him not to know."

"How do you — what do you _want_?" The fake smile had vanished, to be replaced with… was that a hint of real fear?

Best take care of that, Akechi wasn't very _smart_ when he got upset, and his getting irrational would be counterproductive. "Oh, nothing terribly much… I just need you to access the Metaverse for me. Just the once, I expect."

His eyes widened. "How— Who _are_ you?"

She'd already told him her name, but— "You can call me Noir. Now, the Metaverse? I'm sure you have business you'd like to get to."

"And if I don't, I suppose you'll share those _allegations_."

"Oh, no," she said earnestly. "That would probably end up a bit _permanent_ , considering Shido's temperament, so I'll save it for if you turn on me. For not doing what I want, I'll… drop a few words about your background and untrustworthiness — make sure they get to law enforcement." Where he still didn't have the reputation to deal with even the most unsubstantiated rumors — not with where he was coming from. 

Akechi's face went completely flat for a good five seconds before he said, "Fine. You asked for it." Before she could reply, he pulled out his phone, unlocked it, and hit the app. "Matsu Ishikawa. Jikken Academy. Laboratory." The world melted around them, and reformed to find them standing outside a barbed wire fence surrounding a blocky building with slit windows. 

Well then. 

_Well then_ , Astarte said in her mind. Her mask was cool against her face. 

Excellent. Since her Persona depended on _her_ , she'd thought she would keep it, but it was nice to be sure. 

"Happy now?" Akechi said, voice brittle. He was in his "Black Mask" costume. Almost, at least — the helmet didn't stick out as far, closer to a normal mask.

Haru checked her phone, to see the Nav had indeed appeared. "Yes, thank you." She looked around. "This is all very ugly. Is it the work of a teacher or a student?"

"The principal," Akechi said after a moment. "Why?"

"Are you planning to steal his Treasure — no, you're planning to do something to his Shadow." Obviously. "You're challenging a Palace _alone_?"

This wasn't a large Palace compared to the three she'd seen; even so, tackling it alone seemed like a terrible idea. He must have soloed the space station to kill her father, but that was after another two and a half years of experience.

"Yes," Akechi gritted out. "You're in the Metaverse, all right? You got what you wanted. Now stay out of my way." He turned away. 

"Akechi-kun," Haru said sweetly. "If you kill Wakaba Isshiki's Shadow, I will find out, and I will make you pay for it."

"I have no idea who you're talking about."

"And we should exchange phone numbers!"

Haru took pity and let him leave after that. For someone like Akechi, having a total stranger show up and start throwing his deepest secrets around must be very distressing. She couldn't deny it was _satisfying_ to see him squirm, but as long as she had the upper hand, taking advantage of it too much felt like bullying. 

She really wanted to go beat up some Shadows in the institution-Palace, but responsibility won out. Haru went back to the real world, and headed home. 

Except for how she somehow found herself on the route for Okumura Foods corporate headquarters instead. Funny how that happened.

She tried the same keywords, and then she was there in the vestibule of her father's Palace. 

It might be smaller than it had been — would be? — in the future. It was hard to tell. There wasn't any good place to view the entire space station. But it made sense to her, that her father was already distorted now, but got worse after more involvement with Shido (even apart from dehumanizing his employees he'd _hired a hit man_ ). Maybe if—

Wait. Akechi hadn't seemed to recognize her name at all. Was her father not involved in Shido's conspiracy yet? Or was it Akechi who wasn't in far enough yet to know all the players? So many questions…

But she had the Nav now, and Astarte. She could _do_ something, now. She could look for Mona-chan. 

Maybe she could tell Mako-chan. Haru certainly owed her _some_ sort of explanation, after giving her a sealed envelope to give to her sister if Haru died, disappeared, went insane, had a sudden personality change, or was otherwise incapacitated.

* * *

"It went fine," she reassured Mako-chan the next day. "I wouldn't say the risk is completely over, and you should hold on to the letter, but hopefully it won't be needed."

"What have you gotten _into_ , Haru?" Makoto asked. 

Haru didn't hesitate. "Something necessary. I can tell you, but — it's not _safe_ , Mako-chan. And you would end up lying to people."

Makoto didn't hesitate, either. "Tell me."

"For the first part, it's — easier to show you."

After school, she brought Makoto to the exterior of Kamoshida's Palace. Not past that, though, because Makoto's clothes hadn't changed and she didn't seem to be hearing Anat — or Johanna — at all, and while a sufficiently stressful situation could trigger an awakening… Haru wouldn't feel right, leading a friend into danger just to get _help_. Astarte was her _ultimate_ Persona. She'd be fine on her own.

So she told Makoto about the Metaverse and Palaces and Treasures and changing hearts and Shadows and about Astarte and about the other, _highly untrustworthy_ Persona-user in Tokyo — and neglected to mention that many people could summon a Persona, if they tried, or that Makoto in particular was a very likely candidate, or that she probably had the Nav herself now.

* * *

That night, Akechi texted her. 

GA: What is a treasure and what happens if you steal it

Haru raised an eyebrow. She hadn't really expected him to contact her.

HO: Very abrupt, Akechi-kun! You should be more polite when you're asking for a favor.  
GA: What would you accept for the information?

There probably were some things Akechi knew which she would like to know — for example, whether her father was involved with Shido yet, and what exactly Akechi was doing at this point, and the state of things in Mementos. Whether Akechi would go along with it was another question.

HO: We may be able to arrange something.  
HO: Meet me in your principal's Palace Saturday at 3:00.

Oh, and before they got any farther—

HO: How secure is your phone? Does anyone else have access to it?

GA: It's pay as you go, so I wouldn't think so.

Hmm. Pay-as-you-go phone, less-than-illustrious high school — Akechi might be working for Shido, but Shido had yet to really _invest_ in him. 

Maybe she could keep it that way.

It felt a little mean, contemplating how she could prevent Akechi from attaining the comfortable life he'd had in the future, but his association with Shido _had_ ultimately gotten him killed. It was for his own good really.

And anyway, Akechi's comfortable life had been bought with many other people's lives or futures. Put that way, she didn't feel sorry at all.

* * *

Haru woke up. 

"You're all right!" Queen said. No, Makoto. No, _Queen_ , there was mask and scarf and—

"Her health is half back, but not her magic," Akechi said, somewhere off to the left. "We need to get out of here now."

Haru sat up, a little unsteadily. What on Earth (or not) had happened? Makoto had awakened her Persona? Akechi was in Kamoshida's Palace? The last thing she remembered was—

She'd decided she had plenty of time before she had to meet Akechi. She'd gone into Kamoshida's Palace with the intention of looking for Mona-chan — she wasn't worried about it, all the Shadows she'd spotted were fairly low-level, and none of them seemed to have Nuclear. She'd blazed through them easily en route to the dungeons. 

But, she remembered now, there were a lot of them. And sometimes they got lucky. And some of them could Confuse, and she threw that off fast but not _immediately_ , and the elephant ones could do a lot of damage when she didn't know to immediately get them with Psy, her health had been getting worryingly low, and…

And then the Heavenly Punishers had showed up, and started throwing Bless attacks at her, one after another, and—

Haru looked at Akechi. He was still Black Mask, but it was Robin Hood hovering behind him. 

Haru felt cold. "Did you have to _Samarecarm_ me?"

"…Recarm, and you're _damned_ lucky I don't use Robin Hood much, or I would have ditched that for something more useful by now. Not like I could revive myself."

Right, Robin Hood would also be much lower level now — and he'd only learned Samarecarm while he was pretending to be a Phantom Thief. "…Thank you. For the revival. What… how did you come to be here?"

"Akechi-san came looking for you when you missed meeting him," Makoto said. "He found me waiting for you. I — told him where you'd gone and that you were late—"

"And that your informational deadman switch was still active—"

"—And he agreed to go looking for you."

"I was blackmailed. _Again_."

"Maybe that should be 'blackmailed, still'?" Haru asked, accepting Makoto's help to get to her feet. "It's the same information."

"Different person makes it _again_ ," Akechi huffed. "Then she insisted on coming along into the Palace — does every damned school in this city have an associated Palace? — even though I told her she would be _completely useless_ —"

"He didn't think I was useless after those horseman-Shadows threw off his spells and set him on fire and he was knocked off his feet—"

"Yes, that would be easily half an hour _after_ I had to jump into a _completely avoidable_ nest of owlmen after you charged in screaming at the top of your lungs to rescue a _cognitive double_ —"

"Not that you bothered explaining cognitive doubles until _considerably_ later even though you had _ample_ time to _before_ I attacked—"

"After I had to sacrifice _two_ of my _very rare_ Snuff Souls to get you mobile again after you refused to be sensible and leave after you awakened your Persona—"

"Which reminds me, you were _less than_ helpful during that—"

"I was trying to set up an attack, and I would have stepped in before you got permanently damaged! And if I'd stepped in sooner you might not have gotten your Persona, I don't know what you're complaining about!"

"He called me a — a — a — and you just _stood_ there!"

"It's a rude world, grow up and get used to it!"

"Grow up?! I'm not the one using a _lightsaber_ —"

" _It fucking works you prissy little—_ "

They had slowly progressed to actually screaming in each other's faces. Haru felt very old. "Maybe we should get out of the Palace before we attract more Heavenly Punishers," she suggested.

Both of the others agreed with alacrity. They must have run into some of those, too.

They managed to avoid all but one fight on the trip out. It was enough for Haru to observe that Makoto had a simple revolver and brass knuckles, and Akechi was using a beam sword and laser gun, which looked rather odd with his Black Mask getup. (…Though they hadn't looked exactly normal with his 'good guy' suit, either, now that she thought about it. …Then again she wasn't sure anything would have looked normal with his 'good guy' suit with the possible exception of a drum major baton.)

When the three of them tumbled out into the street outside Shuujin, it was getting dark. Makoto yelped and snatched out her phone. "Oh, _no_ , Sis is going to—" She stopped, looking at the phone. "Sis has to work late, and won't be back for… at least two more hours."

Haru checked her own phone, not surprised that no one had remarked on her absence, either. They'd notice if she kept this up, though.

Akechi just checked the time, and huffed again. "And I've missed curfew, what a perfect end to the day." A beat. "Dorm curfew."

Since Akechi seemed to have given up on his curfew, Haru directed the group to the nearest Big Bang Burger and paid for everyone's meals. It was the least she could do. She didn't even really mind paying for Akechi's second burger after he more or less inhaled the first one.

She had been careless, plain and simple — too used to Akira taking care of recovery items and pacing things and watching everyone's health and magic levels, too used to having a team to help if things went bad. She hadn't even looked for loot beyond checking a single treasure chest which turned out to be locked. If Makoto hadn't stuck around waiting for her — if Akechi hadn't come looking for her—

She bowed to both of them. "I am truly sorry for putting you to so much trouble. I will not allow this to happen again."

Akechi fake-smiled at her, but his eyes were hard. "It _better not_. You can't just set things up so I'll be destroyed if you die and then try to get yourself killed in _completely unrelated ways_." (Both the charm of the smile and the menace of the gaze were slightly undercut by the smear of mustard beside his mouth. It matched his uniform tie.)

That was a fair complaint. "I'm sorry about that, too, Akechi-kun."

"Maybe if you got rid of whatever _arrangements_ —"

"I don't trust you nearly enough for that, Akechi-kun," she said demurely. Besides, while it wasn't _fair_ to ruin him if she died in some unrelated way, it was still the right thing to do. Separating Shido from his Metaverse assassin would improve a lot of things about the future. "But I do think you've more than paid for an explanation about Treasures. The person who creates a Palace—"

"No," Akechi interrupted. "I want to trade information for information for that — you can ask me… whatever you're thinking of, I can find out. I have… sources."

Hopefully those sources didn't involve hurting anyone. "And in exchange for this… incident?"

"You help me with the Palace at Jikken. There are some parts that are proving… difficult to overcome alone. Enemies which inflict ailments. That sort of thing."

"Just Haru, or both of us?" Makoto said before Haru could say anything.

"Either. Up to you."

Makoto leaned forward, eyes narrowed. "Even though I'm _useless_?"

"…You're a complete novice, but the healing is useful — and you have differently-natured attacks, that's useful. So I wouldn't say no to either of you."

And Makoto, Haru could tell, was not going to be put off doing this. "One trip into the Palace at Jikken Academy," she said. "Any additional ones to be negotiated at a later time."

"Fine," Akechi said. "I'd be open to working on targets of your choice in return."

"I'll think about it. As for information… to start with, I want to know whether and to what extent Kunikazu Okumura is involved with the people you work for."

"How is Kunikazu Okumura involved with Shido's people," Akechi repeated. "Your father, right?"

"Yes." Was he really ignorant of any involvement of her father's, or just faking it? "Can you do it?"

"I'll need a few days, but yes." Akechi slid out of the seat. "I should be going."

"'The people he works for'?" Makoto said. "Who would they be?"

"Very bad people, Niijima-san," Akechi said in a tone of voice that might have been serious or might have been mocking. "I'll be in touch about Jikken." He flashed another very fake smile and loped out of the restaurant. He never had gotten rid of the mustard.

Makoto turned to Haru. "Haru?"

"It's… I don't know as much as I'd like to. There's a… conspiracy, a corrupt group of people centered around a particular person… The strange thing is, Akechi wants to destroy that person, too, he's just working for him - doing his dirty work, mostly — because… I was never entirely clear on why, exactly. I think he comes up with terrible ideas and then just refuses to relinquish them no matter how obvious it becomes that they're terrible."

Makoto nodded slowly. "You said not to trust him, but I didn't have any chance of getting far enough to find you without him. Is visiting this — other Palace with him going to be all right?"

Haru bit her lip. "I think so. I won't ask you to go if you're worried, though."

"Being worried is _more_ of a reason for me to go."

Makoto very kindly did not call Haru out on not telling her she could awaken her own Persona, but Haru knew Mako-chan was on to her, all the same.

* * *

Haru was more than half expecting Akechi would want them to go to his principal's Palace immediately, on Sunday, but there was silence on his end. That was a relief. Makoto could do with a little more experience, and Haru wanted to do more prep.

She wasn't sure where Akira had picked up his more esoteric medicines, but some of the healing items had looked like they came from a regular drugstore, and Ann had mentioned some of the lower-level ones were just… vending-machine type drinks. Haru needed to look into that. And she needed to get her garden started as soon as possible, and try to replicate her special restorative vegetables. Weapons and armor were mostly from the airsoft store in Shibuya; Haru had visited there herself, out of curiosity. She'd see what she could afford.

She could not afford nearly as much as she was hoping, as it turned out, not and keep anything left for all the healing items she wanted to look for. Haru evaluated priorities, and eventually settled on getting a better model gun for Makoto. Makoto could probably do with some more combat practice before punching too many Shadows, and Haru had the better Persona to make up for worse weapons (not to mention, hers were even more expensive than Makoto's). At least she got Mr. Iwai's acknowledgement as an acceptable customer — he had initially been even more nonplussed by a first-year high school girl than by a third-year high school girl.

She'd sell some jewelry, maybe. And pay closer attention to money drops from Shadows. And look for loot.

In the afternoon, she and Makoto went back to Kamoshida's Palace for some random Shadow-fighting and looting. It wasn't as good as being on a team, but it was better, with both of them. Makoto even came up with Queen as a code name without any prompting. If only they would find Mona-chan! Then they'd really be on their way to being Phantom Thieves again…

Maybe she should be staking out Shibuya Station watching for cats? But he could be going in or out of Mementos at any time! The only time-place combination she knew was Kamoshida's dungeons almost two years in the future, and what if they did something that changed that? Stealing Kamoshida's Treasure would _certainly_ change it — would change everything — but how in good conscience could they let the Palace stand?

Or should she even be considering stealing Treasures at all? Thinking about the Shadows they'd found in the depths of Mementos…

Being the leader was _hard_.

* * *

Haru dreamed she was having coffee with Akira and trying to ask him about medicine, but somehow everything she said ended up being about luak coffee, and everything he said was something about papal robes of all things.

* * *

They didn't hear from Akechi on Monday, either, or Tuesday. Wednesday morning, a news story broke about a government worker of some description being arrested for disorderly conduct after abruptly announcing his intention to 'fight' everyone else in his subway car, screaming profanities and verbal abuse, and tearing people's shoes off to hit them with. He was currently hospitalized, but had already resigned. So at least she knew what Akechi had been up to!

He texted that afternoon.

GA: Jikken Palace tomorrow afternoon?  
GA: I have the information you wanted.

* * *

When Haru mentioned the need for code names to Akechi he tried to name everyone after colors — or possibly after Featherman characters — but he didn't argue when she told him they were already decided, and he would be Crow. Then it was time to face his principal's Palace.

Apparently Akechi had already made it through the yard and in the back door of Matsu Ishikawa's laboratory and through the physical plant in the basement. But he hadn't made it much farther, because the back hallways were roamed by men in biohazard suits who turned into swarms of Confusion-inflicting Gallows Flowers.

"They go down easily enough with Loki's fire spells," Akechi explained as they peered around a corner. "But if they get me…"

"It's hard to do anything while Confused," Haru agreed. "I have a spell to cure that. And I think there are some armor types that will reduce the chance of getting it to begin with, but I'm not sure how to obtain them…" Why, _why_ had she never _asked_ about these things?

"Recovery should be enough," Akechi said.

"Unless they get all three of us," Makoto pointed out. "Which isn't impossible if there are enough of them."

"I haven't died here, obviously," Akechi replied. "It's always worn off before that point. I just get low enough on health that I have to fall back. And you have healing. It should be fine to at least try it."

Part of Haru felt it would be smartest to listen to Makoto, who was the strategy person, but the rest of her rebelled at the idea of retreating from _Gallows Flowers_. They hadn't even shown _up_ in any of the Palaces the Thieves had hit during her tenure — she'd only encountered them when they'd done a little raiding in the upper levels of Mementos to get more experience for her. "Let's do it."

It wasn't _easy_. Fighting was harder without someone to assess their enemies' numbers or reel off their strengths and weaknesses; happily Akechi had memorized many of the ones he'd encountered before, but that didn't cover everything. Similarly, there was no one with an intuitive grip on their location — much less the Shadows' locations. Setting up ambushes was challenging, and the Palace's security level kept creeping up despite use of the "stealthanols" Akechi was carrying. Haru's health was high enough that she was riding it through with minimal healing, but the other two ended up wearing dozens of adhesive bandages, in order to preserve Makoto's magic. They ducked into storage rooms to smash open crates, but had no way of knowing which of them contained anything beforehand. They found two treasure chests, one of them only because Makoto tripped on the stairs, and the other one locked and only accessible because Akechi had lockpicks. The decrease in accuracy from the grenade launcher she'd been using and this new-old one was frustrating.

Just as they were closing in on the doors marked PROCESSING, which had to lead to the next area, and a safe room just before it, the Gallows Flowers came in even more numbers and brought a pair of fire-resistant Brutal Cavalrymen along, who for some reason kept targeting Makoto. Through a haze of Confusion, Haru saw Akechi knock Makoto to the floor, bolt in a half-circle around the fight, and hit one of the Cavalrymen with what she realized had to be his unique Shadow-frenzying spell. It immediately took out its fellow and half the Gallows Flowers before hurtling away down the hall, still screaming in rage. Unfortunately, on the way out it took down Akechi with a Gallows Flower to the face (what sort of skill was involved in _that_?). Fortunately, the Confusion wore off and Haru was able to take out the rest of the enemies and hustle everyone into the safe room.

"What was _that_?" Makoto demanded as soon as she was done with the healing.

"You mean knocking you down? I had to make sure it wasn't paying attention to you when I cast the spell," Akechi said reasonably.

"I _meant_ the _spell_. You sent that horseman into some kind of — berserker rage—"

"So it would turn on the others. I never would have made it this far without that spell, it's extremely useful."

Put that way it sounded all very reasonable — no different from using Confuse or Brainwash on an enemy — but Haru still couldn't dissociate the frenzying spell from Akechi using it on _himself_ , there in the engine room, just before his death. She tried not to let it show on her face, but wasn't sure how successful she was. "I can see how that spell is useful for you, Akechi-kun, working alone, but it _is_ risky, and might throw battle plans into disarray. As long as we're working together, could you be sure to consult us before making use of it?"

"…Fine." He muttered something which might have been "it's a really _cool_ spell". Haru begged to differ.

"We should probably leave off here," she said instead of pursuing that. "We're all pretty tired." Makoto nodded.

"Fine," Akechi said again. "Information exchange now?"

Well, it was a safe room, and they could all probably do with a breather even before heading back. "All right. You first."

"Actually," Makoto broke in, "before that, could I ask a question? Haru, you seem to have more experience, but — as far as you've mentioned — you only have one Persona, while Akechi-kun has two? Why is that? Should I expect to get a second Persona?"

"No," Haru said. "Well, actually — it's possible your Persona will evolve, eventually. But most people, almost all people, have only one Persona at a time." She glanced at Akechi. "Do you… know why you have two?" By the time she'd joined everyone had just taken it for granted that Akira had multiple Personas, so she'd never asked. Maybe Ann or Ryuji would have known, or Mona-chan. "Did you… recruit either of them, from somewhere?"

Akechi frowned deeply. "No, I didn't. Most people just have one?" And _there_ was the smug smile she hated.

"Where _did_ the second one come from, though?" Makoto pressed.

"Are you jealous?" Akechi's smile got even smugger.

"I'm _curious_."

"You'll just have to stay that way."

Makoto glared, and then suddenly she smiled kindly. "Oh, I understand. You could have just said so — this is all very complicated, neither of us is going to judge you for not knowing why you have two."

Akechi apparently decided to just pretend the whole exchange never happened, and turned to Haru. "Shido's representatives have not yet made any contact with Kunikazu Okumura," Akechi said. "But they are looking to bring in more businessmen in the next few months, and he's on the short list of candidates. Unless something changes they'll send someone to talk to him in maybe July."

That was… He'd been recruited just to get _more businessmen_? He'd _joined_ with no particular personal stake? And she'd never realized the dark places he was walking into, hadn't noticed for _two years_ how far he was gone?

But he hadn't joined yet. Rejecting Shido's overtures would just make an enemy of him, but— "What if, before they made any contact, he were to suddenly have a change of heart and rearrange all his business practices to be kinder and more considerate of worker welfare?"

Akechi blinked. "Uh… I expect they'd think he'd lost his mind and steer clear. That doesn't seem very likely, though."

"That's where my answers come in." Haru explained as best she could about Palaces and Treasures and how Treasures could be stolen to cause changes of heart. Makoto had already heard it all, but she listened just as intently as Akechi did. 

When she was done, Akechi looked deeply troubled. "That's… I need to think about that. That doesn't strike you as… as… killing parts of someone just because…?"

Huh, maybe Akechi hadn't just been making up all his supposed moral qualms about stealing hearts? "If he gets involved with the conspiracy, sooner or later all of him will get killed."

"Sooner or later _everyone_ gets killed," Akechi said. "Okay, information traded. We should go. But first, can we just go far enough to _look_ past the door?"

Haru had never claimed to be the most _sensible_ member of the team.

Past the door, the walls and floor went from gray to white. The Shadows in biohazard gear were mixed with Shadows in white labcoats. And there were three clear plexiglass boxes, each on a pushcart, each containing a snarling, feral… wolf-man? ape-man? They had short leashes tied at the top of the boxes, and clawed futilely at the plexiglass.

As they watched, a biohazard-suited cognition pushed one of the boxes down the hall. As it passed their vantage point, Haru saw that the 'leash' was a piece of dull yellow cloth. Huh.

"Oh, I don't like that at all," Makoto breathed. Akechi didn't say anything.

* * *

Back in the real world, there were stilted goodbyes, a three-way split of the money and two-way split of the other loot (Makoto waived her share), and subdued agreements to text later about future Palace-raiding. Riding the train to Makoto's (where she'd claim to have been all afternoon), Haru considered what they'd seen further. "What kind of school _is_ Jikken?"

Makoto had her phone out. "Jikken Academy is a college preparatory high school for students with high potential and 'suboptimal' backgrounds. Its graduates have a decent acceptance rate, considering — but it also has relatively high dropout and expulsion rates."

"…Hmm."

"It actually _does_ have dorms. I admit I was anticipating otherwise."

* * *

To Haru's mingled relief and shame, Makoto agreed that they should prioritize her father's Palace over Kamoshida's without Haru having to ask. There was no time limit with Kamoshida, after all. In return, Haru insisted Makoto couldn't neglect her scholastic responsibilities, and had she considered student council? (She couldn't be what diverted Mako-chan from being student council president!) Haru spent some time getting her garden started and looking for more medical supplies.

And thinking. Mostly thinking.

Taking Akechi to her father's Palace was the _last_ thing she wanted to do, but even Kamoshida or Ishigawa's Palace would be challenging at best for a two-person no-navigator team, and in the future her father's Palace had been much worse than either of them. Akechi would be one more competent fighter, and while he obviously wasn't a natural team player he'd adapted fairly well over the course of the joint excursion. If she could rely on the security of her blackmail, bringing Akechi could help a lot.

If she _couldn't_ rely on her blackmail, they were in deep trouble, but she wasn't sure bringing Akechi to her father's Palace would make things any worse.

She _did not like this_.

Akira would have known how to deal with all this.

* * *

**Group chat:**

HO: Would you be interested in trading Palace assistance? At a two-to-one ratio, since there are two of us.  
GA: I would. That ridiculous castle?  
HO: No. Somewhere else.  
GA: Your father's Palace, then. All right.  
MN: I'm trying to come up with equitable terms for this that will accommodate the vagaries of everyone's schedules.  
GA: Understood.  
GA: Evenings and nights are difficult for me.  
MN: I'll take that into account.

GA: Are you open to further information exchanges, Noir?  
HO: I'll think about it.

* * *

The Shadows in the space station were, on average, weaker than she remembered, and safe rooms seemed more frequent. They still almost died on the first day due to Haru failing to remember Awakened God-type Shadows reflected gun attacks until after she'd already fired several grenades at one. She avoided having to get revived this time, at least, but she had to use the Life Stone she'd found in their trip to Ishikawa's Palace, _and_ two doses of a drug from the drugstore that restored health but played hell with her aim. She ran into the wall while they were retreating back to the nearest safe room. Twice.

Once in the safe room, Akechi pulled out a little black notebook and pen from somewhere in his costume (which did not look like it should have space for carrying stationery) and started scribbling furiously, not even waiting for healing.

"Are those notes on Shadows?" Makoto asked, trying to look over his shoulder.

Akechi twisted away. "Yes. Some of these I haven't seen before."

Makoto paused. "Could… _we_ maybe see the notes on Shadows?"

"…Let me know which one you're wondering about and I'll tell you if it's in here."

"It seems like it would be much more practical to make copies of the notes for everyone," Makoto prodded.

Akechi pulled the book in defensively, but his eyes were calculating.

In the end, in order to get custody of the notebook for forty-eight hours, Haru had to explain about navigator abilities, which she didn't mind, and about what she'd meant by _recruiting Personas_ , which she _did_ mind. They did not _want_ an Akechi with access to all Akira's powers.

It did pay off in an unexpected way, though. Makoto stayed up all night photocopying the entire notebook. The second two-thirds was all painstakingly neat notes on Shadows — descriptions, strengths and weaknesses if known, observed attacks, strategies, and even some attempts at sketches. It would be useful, especially since Mako-chan seemed intent on memorizing it immediately. The _first_ third, though, appeared to be a rather stilted 'starship log'.

"This is a code," Makoto said, showing Haru the copies. "Or possibly some very awkward creative writing, but I think it's a code."

Haru flipped through a few pages. Was Akechi really encoding assassinations and… whatever else Shido was up to as shipments and shore leave and crew commendations? "Can you break it?"

"Not immediately… and I don't want to make any promises, I've never tried this before… but I can certainly try."

* * *

Akechi never mentioned the part of the notebook not on Shadows, hadn't asked them not to look at it when he handed the book over and never offered an explanation for it, but later, the next time she saw him writing in the notebook, it looked like the earlier pages had all been torn out.

* * *

The laboratory Palace was probably a little easier than the space station in terms of enemies, but it was difficult in other ways. At first, it was just grotesque and off-putting, full of labcoat-wearing cognitions carving up snarling beasts and sewing them back together _different_ , to lurch around like Frankensteins. It was weird and disgusting and made Haru awkwardly grateful for the _bloodlessness_ of robots.

Rather embarrassingly, it wasn't until halfway through their third trip in that Haru realized the snarling beasts were Ishikawa's cognitions of the _students_. Once you knew that, the laboratory turned from grotesque and unpleasant to horrific. Any qualms about taking on a Palace at Akechi's request disappeared rapidly.

(She was pretty sure both Akechi and Makoto had known since that first look. Those mustard-colored leashes were Jikken's uniform _ties_.)

(Haru wondered what had happened at Jikken, in her future. Had Akechi stalled out on completing the Palace, until Shido transferred him, leaving Jikken behind? Or had he made it through on his own, and given Ishikawa a mental shutdown? Honestly, she… wasn't sure how much she would blame Akechi, for that.)

* * *

**Group chat:**

MN: Akechi-kun, I want you to teach me how to make lockpicks.  
MN: And that Stealthanol substance.  
MN: And Goho-Ms.  
GA: Why?  
MN: Because we are obviously going through them faster than you can replenish them.  
GA: True.  
GA: I'm not sure how to work this logistically.  
HO: We can take an afternoon off from the Palaces if we really need to. These are valuable tools.  
MN: Oh, but the safe room is IN SIGHT!  
GA: You might be able to reverse engineer the tools given examples, Niijima-san.  
GA: That's how I started making them to begin with. I'll pass you some tomorrow.

* * *

They were making progress, it was just so _slow_. Sometimes they didn't even make it to the next safe room in one go, so they'd have to cover all the same ground again. It was exhausting. Mako-chan could apparently keep up relentless Palace exploration and stellar scholastic performance simultaneously, but Haru was struggling. Fortunately she'd _had_ all of this before, even if she didn't remember everything, so she was — managing. More or less.

Akechi was somehow finding time for school, the two Palaces, the occasional psychotic breakdown — some unfortunate unnamed-in-the-news high school student abruptly melted down in public and broke both hands punching a statue in the face before being subdued; a hostess club employee went berserk and seriously injured several customers with wine bottles — and whatever other dirty work he was doing for Shido. Haru didn't know how he did it. There was still no public detective work. She wondered when that would start.

The loot from the Palaces improved some, but she still ended up tapping her own resources to upgrade her grenade launcher. It wasn't as if she wore the more ostentatious jewelry anyway.

Hopefully no one would ask where any of it had gone.


	2. MAY

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My headcanon for the metaphysical nature of Akechi's Personas owes a lot to [The Immortal Realm of Barbelo](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11402325/chapters/25538781).

Akechi showed up at the space station rendezvous _extremely_ pleased with himself. "I," he announced, "have a third Persona."

Oh, _no_. When there hadn't been any change in interaction between Akechi and Shadows in the Palaces — no sign either side was even remotely interested in negotiation — she'd thought they'd dodged that bullet. Damn. She forced a smile, since this could only be an advantage in their current endeavors, and hoped it wasn't one of Akira's favorites. She wasn't sure she could bear that.

"What does it do?" Makoto asked.

"Defense debuffs _aaaaand_ ," his smirk turned into almost a grin, "some navigational abilities."

What?

"Here, I'll show you." Akechi reached for his mask. "Come, _Defarge_!"

…Definitely not one of Akira's favorites.

The Persona seemed to be sitting in the hint of a rocking chair; two red dots glowed under a bonnet. By far the most prominent feature, though, was the _knitting_. The knitting needles clacked endlessly, and yarn was everywhere, strands flying off into the air and fading out.

"The knitting represents the information-gathering?" Makoto asked.

"Uh, yes— _Defarge_! Sweep for Shadows!"

The knitting needles sped up to a blur, yarn flying everywhere, and then the Persona raised the knitted cloth, and a glowing display materialized before them — a map, though not a very big one, showing them in the safe room, a bit of map in every direction, and a few moving dots.

"She can also do loot scans," Akechi said. "…And I think some battle assessments, but I didn't want to try that on my own. She has too many weaknesses, terrible defense, and no offensive moves."

Nothing like as good as Oracle, then — for some reason Haru found herself smug about that. A bit better than Mona could do, maybe, but unlike Mona, a liability in combat as long as it was active. It would be very risky to use alone, but it would help their _group_. 

…Was this what happened when someone who wasn't a natural navigator acquired a navigation Persona? How _had_ he acquired a navigation Persona?

Makoto seemed to be thinking along similar lines. "All right, you must have some idea how you got this one."

Akechi put the Persona away. "…Sort of."

"Meaning…?"

"I went to a Palace I'd never been to before, didn't summon either of the other two, thought _really hard_ about how I needed to know more to— How I needed to know more."

"Needed to know more to what?" Makoto prompted.

"To… achieve my goals."

That probably meant "to kill Shido". Hang on, had he admitted to them yet that he wanted to kill Shido? (Had _she_ admitted to _him_ that she knew he wanted to kill Shido? This was getting confusing.)

…If it was that simple, it was entirely possible that Akechi _had_ had Defarge in the future. It would have made no sense to bring her out during their final fight, and before that he'd been pretending to have a single Persona. (Even if he hadn't been keeping that a secret, he might have chosen to keep this particular one a secret, out of fear that someone, and by someone she meant Ryuji, might overreact to it being female.) She… _probably_ shouldn't worry that this would give Akechi too much additional power. It might help him find people's Shadows to kill them in Mementos, but it wasn't like he'd had any trouble doing that anyway.

She'd probably been quiet too long, so she smiled. "I'm impressed, Crow. That will be just the thing."

Of course twenty minutes later they discovered that 'sweep for shadows' didn't cover cognitions, even when the cognitions were killer robots that would attack you on sight. They were lucky Akechi had put Defarge and accompanying vulnerabilities away before the robots attacked, or they probably would have had to revive him.

Shadows were trouble, but cognitions could throw a real wrench in the works.

* * *

"Noir, there's… someone that looks like you down there," Makoto said. "…Sort of looks like you."

Haru felt her stomach drop to her toes. 

Akechi swore. "It's a cognitive double. We should have expected this. She's his heir, of _course_ she's important enough…"

She'd been his heir _last_ time, and that hadn't made her important enough. Or had they just never found it? Then again, maybe this was the same as the Palace being smaller — a sign he wasn't quite so distorted, yet. A sign she still had time to stop him. This was a _good_ sign. Though that didn't make her any more eager to see what her father really thought of her…

She got ahold of herself. "Queen, has anyone explained cognitive doubles to you?"

"Somewhat belatedly. We encountered some in Kamoshida's Palace."

Oh, right. Haru didn't want to think about what those must have been like. At least Ann couldn't possibly be there. "…Lovely." Wait… "Are there cognitive doubles in Ishikawa's Palace?"

"Oddly enough, I have been trying not to pay attention to distinguishing features in there," Akechi said frostily. 

All right, that was reasonable. She took a deep breath. "All right. Let's try to get through unnoticed."

Cognitive Haru was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a robot. Realistic, but still clearly a robot. Doll-like, if dolls were human-sized. Akechi muttered something about "uncanny valley"; uncanny was certainly one way to describe it. 

Cognitive Haru was a _malfunctioning_ robot, loaded on a dolly to be taken for repairs. Which— At least she wasn't being disposed of like the other broken robots? But still, a _malfunctioning robot_?

(Still better than a creepy clone designed to kill the original, or a… she couldn't think of a polite way to describe what she'd heard about Ann's double in Kamoshida's Palace.)

They made it through the room unnoticed. At one point Haru was sure Cognitive Haru saw them, but the robot didn't sound the alarm.

* * *

In hindsight, the fact it was a _malfunctioning_ robot should have been a warning sign.

* * *

Once, Haru would have been surprised and cautiously pleased to hear her father wanted to speak with her. Now she was mostly frustrated that she had to cancel her other plans. She thought they could make the next safe room in the laboratory in one more go, and then _never again_ would they have to traverse the hall of glass-fronted cells. It would be an enormous relief. (Two-thirds of the way along on the right was a cell holding a brown-furred, red-eyed beast that sat placidly in the corner, almost looking like it was smiling, until you got too close, at which point it lunged at you, and would keep battering itself against the glass, snarling and slavering, until you were out of sight around the bend. Haru wasn't _sure_ it was meant to be Akechi, but he did seem to take particular care to avoid looking at it.)

But she couldn't very well _refuse_ to talk to her father. Nonessentials to be sacrificed for Palace time were things like her thousand and one lessons in traditional ladylikeness, which she'd all had before anyway…

Maybe she should be _concerned_ that her father wanted to talk to her.

* * *

As it turned out, yes, she needed to be concerned.

Her father was disappointed in her.

Her father had noticed the unauthorized alterations to her schedule.

(Her father had… apparently not noticed the missing jewelry. Nor did he say anything about where she had been rather than where she was supposed to be.)

Her father had hoped she would be an asset to the company, but at _this_ rate she would be an _embarrassment_.

There was nothing for it but to marry her off quickly and close to home, to minimize the damage. Someone staid and stable, not young and volatile.

Her father was not interested in hearing her response.

She had forgotten, after her father died, how helpless he could make her feel. And how _furious_.

Haru wanted to shout at him. She wanted to cry. Instead, she returned to her room and very carefully did not slam the door.

Because this could have been worse! This could have been so much worse. He'd barely even made a token gesture towards forcing her to resume her so-called studies, let alone actually restricting her movement. He hadn't noticed the jewelry, or the in hindsight possibly question-raising places she'd been visiting. This would put barely a hitch in their Palace exploration — just one more motivation to get everything wrapped up quickly, not like she was going to do anything else—

She only noticed the hot tears running down her face when they started dripping onto her skirt.

But she wouldn't let this stop her. She wouldn't let this _slow her down_.

* * *

Haru didn't want to explain everything more than once, so she didn't mention anything to Makoto during the school day. Makoto did do a double take at the end of the day when Haru changed into never-worn blue jeans and hooded sweatshirt she'd dug out of the back of her closet, and added an oversized pair of dark glasses.

"My changes in behavior _have_ been noticed," Haru explained. "I don't believe anyone is watching me, but…"

"Better safe than sorry," Mako-chan agreed. She giggled a little. "Maybe I should get a disguise, too."

There was no laughing in the safe room when Haru finally explained what her father had wanted.

" _Engaged?_ " Akechi and Makoto demanded in unison. They didn't even look distrustfully at each other afterwards.

"How is that even supposed to help?" Akechi said. "If you'd been caught out I was expecting you to be… getting escorted to and from school, constantly watched, something like that."

"He — what — you're _fifteen_!" Makoto said. "That's — who does he think he _is_?"

"He… thinks he's the company president, and I've suddenly become a… a risky investment," Haru replied. "And that does seem a more obvious response, Crow, and I will be taking precautions in case he is trying to have me followed, but… really, an engagement is much less disruptive than any of the more… more straightforward possible responses, so I don't want to complain."

"Good point," Akechi said. 

"This makes no sense," Makoto fumed. "And it's unconscionable. How could he—"

"Can we just — not talk about this?" Haru interrupted, trying to keep her voice level. "This shouldn't interfere with our work, much. I'll want to be a little more discreet is all. It might be best for Queen to take over some of the shopping, especially at the airsoft store."

Makoto winced. "It… it may be better for Crow to do that, actually. I'm not sure… how well I'd handle it, from what you've described."

Haru frowned, but she guessed it didn't matter if Akechi had access to realistic weapons when he already had access to _actual_ weapons. "All right."

But Akechi was shaking his head. "You'd have to come with me, to take anything we bought. I can't hold replica weapons overnight." At their blank looks, he shrugged. "They don't search every night, but the consequences if they found anything not _obviously_ a toy would be… drastic."

"…You have terrible dorms."

Haru was not at all sorry to change the subject. "Considering we are in the principal's Palace, I can't say I'm surprised."

* * *

In the end, they decided that Haru would going to the airsoft shop after all. She'd just have to be discreet.

The 'dorm' story was blown an hour or so later when they stumbled into a cognition who identified Akechi, wanted to know what he was doing out of his cell, and called him 'the throwaway animal from the group home'. Akechi went alarmingly cold and flat, and shot the cognition in the face.

Eighteen times.

He didn't even _summon_ Loki, and yet the outline of the Persona seemed to loom behind him, _radiating_ malice.

This… could be bad.

Haru put a hand on Makoto's shoulder before she could say anything. "Crow, conserve your ammunition for the Shadows. We're not at the safe room yet."

After a long, tense pause, Akechi lowered his blaster, and Loki's silhouette faded. "Understood."

The rest of the trip down the corridor of cells was… well, Akechi did not hold back at all with the fire spells, and he threw a destructive physical attack directly at the cognition that might have been him instead of at the Embittered Blacksmith he _should_ have been targeting, but he mostly listened to Makoto's instructions, and Haru didn't think he was likely to lash out at them on purpose.

By the time they made it to the safe room — finally — everyone was on their last legs and too exhausted for the ensuing discussion to be anything like as tense as it could have been.

"You knew," Akechi said. "Of _course_ you knew, you know _everything_."

She'd been trying to give him that impression, but she still had to fight the urge to correct him. She did not know everything. Some days it felt like she barely knew anything. "I didn't know where you're currently living," she said. "I assumed it really was the dorms."

Akechi scoffed tiredly. "Dorm curfew is an hour and a half earlier, residents are encouraged to spy on each other, and they send you to a counselor if they see anything they think is strange in your belongings. There's a second-year who lost his only keepsake of his late sister because they thought it was inappropriate for a boy to have ribbons. I don't want to know what they'd think of the beam sword."

"That's…" Makoto trailed off. "Um, that's…"

"Fortunately not my problem." He smiled tightly.

Haru wondered what he wasn't saying, but… "We'll take your word for it."

The smile got — a little more real. "I appreciate that."

Okay. Tentatively… crisis averted? "All right. I think we're all worn out for today. Space station tomorrow?"

* * *

Despite Akechi's concerns and Haru's own fears, there was no sign over the next few days of her father having her followed. He just disappeared into the office, again, and she didn't hear anything from him for almost a week.

He reappeared to introduce her _new fiance_.

Tomioka-san was a vice-president of some sort somewhere in Okumura Foods — Haru wondered if there was a robot of him somewhere in the Palace — who evidently had a reputation for turning 'wild' new employees into good little corporate drones. Haru wondered what he'd said when her father had approached him about turning Haru into a good little corporate wife and fathering a _proper_ heir. Probably _exactly_ what the appropriate corporate response was, whatever that was, since as far as she could tell that was his entire motivation for getting into this. 

The best thing about Tomioka was he kept his hands to himself. He never once touched Haru in any way that wasn't only socially acceptable but socially _expected_. He barely _looked_ at her body. This was not a man who would push for premarital sex.

The worst thing about Tomioka was that he seemed to be taking the 'tame wild heiress' thing seriously all the same. At his insistence, Haru would be having dinner with him four days a week — Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and one other day to be announced unexpectedly. If she failed to attend one of the dinners, she would be saddled with a "bodyguard"/babysitter who would make sure she didn't miss any in the future. 

"Other options include pulling you out of school," he said, "but I would prefer not to go that far. Education is important."

Well. 

Shit. 

This was going to pay hell with their Palace time.

* * *

It was hard to keep track of time in Palaces. Both Makoto and Akechi were better at it than Haru — Akira had been too, Haru thought — but better didn't mean exact times. But it seemed like, no matter how long or short it _felt_ like, if you visited more than one safe room — or used a Goho-M — or had one of your party seriously injured — you would end up leaving the Metaverse some three or four hours after you entered. 

When you factored in travel time, that did not leave enough time between school and _dinner_. And with at least one of the dinners moving around…

"Okay," Makoto said after Haru explained the new situation. "Okay, this is… we can work with this."

"How?" Akechi said. Frankly Haru agreed with him. 

"Weekends should be all right," Makoto continued, ignoring him. "We just need to be sure to start _immediately_ after school Saturday. If we stock up on health- and magic-restoring items, we should be able to make more progress those days."

More vegetables needed, then. "That's not going to make up for the lost time."

"No, but it's a start. And if we can find a way to predict when that extra dinner will be…"

"I don't have any ideas for that."

"Well, maybe as you," Makoto made a face, "get to know him, you'll be able to predict a bit more." She frowned. "How… is getting to know him likely to be…"

"Is he a lecherous old man, is what you want to ask," Akechi said flatly. 

"I was afraid he would be, but it doesn't seem like it so far. He just seems to see it as… work."

"…Huh."

* * *

The dinners were… awkward, full of nothing but stilted, artificial polite conversation broken up by mini-lectures on _responsibility_. On the bright side Tomioka-san never came within arm's length of her.

Haru devoted her newly unoccupied afternoons mostly to gardening and fretting. Akechi, apparently, devoted it to psychotic breakdowns: there were three inside the first week. Haru wondered if she could get away with asking him to take it easy a bit. Why would Shido want two university students and a pharmacist ruined, anyway? Some sort of drug scandal in the making? At least there still weren't any mental shutdowns.

Makoto spent more time at school, getting into more student council activities — or rather Haru _assumed_ that, until Makoto shared the log she was making of volleyball injuries. 

"You're investigating Kamoshida _by yourself_?"

"Just trying to work out the scope of the problem," Makoto said, as if she weren't a rather unsubtle person trying to spy on a _predator_.

"Mako-chan…"

"It's perfectly safe. It's just the start of a larger survey of injuries in all the sports clubs! Which the student council… hypothetically supports." Makoto looked quite pleased with herself. "I'm sure there won't be any action on it anytime soon, but groundwork is good."

Yes, except where groundwork involved Mako-chan going anywhere near Kamoshida. What if he noticed her? What if he _noticed_ her? "Can't you just… work on breaking Akechi-kun's code instead?"

The first weekend made it very clear that while there was plenty of _time_ after Palace runs, _energy_ was going to be something else entirely. She'd been so used to being able to come back and collapse she hadn't thought about how hard it would be not to. How on earth had Makoto managed cram school, in the future? So Haru zombie'd her way through the dinners, and now Tomioka-san probably thought she was on drugs.

("It's not that bad," she insisted to Akira in a dream. "He's not that bad. I can do this." No she couldn't.)

The second week Makoto broke the starship log code, and discovered it was not a record of unsavory missions for Shido, but a ledger for what had evidently been a highly profitable academic dishonesty business in junior high: assignments completed, reports ghostwritten, tests assisted with, and _possibly_ someone's entrance exam taken for them — the date and price were suggestive, but neither Makoto nor Haru was sure how that would even work. Makoto was _deeply_ disapproving of the whole thing. Haru was… more amused than anything else.

(And yet Makoto was _still_ finding time to poke around the volleyball club. Dratted overachievers.)

At Friday's dinner, Tomioka-san informed her that her father would be joining them on Saturday. It didn't do anything good for her ability to concentrate in the space station the next day; she got Confused by approximately every Vampire Moth they encountered, and couldn't remember how they'd dealt with the access levels in the future. They didn't make it to the next safe room before they had to stop.

"I'm so sorry," Haru said as they returned to the real world. "I'll be… _functional_ again tomorrow, I promise."

" _You_ aren't the one who needs to apologize," Makoto said darkly.

Akechi's response was much blander, but still relatively supportive: "It's a difficult situation for you."

"He'll rescind the engagement when we change his heart," Haru said, and prayed it was true.

* * *

Saturday dinner was excruciatingly awkward. No one had much of anything to say to anyone else, apart from a vague inquiry from her father about Tomioka-san's _progress_ with Haru. Like she was a… she didn't know what that was implying she was, but she didn't like it. She didn't much like Tomioka-san's vague reply about _evaluation period_ either.

Another awkward silence fell. Haru picked at her food. If only she had been more _careful_! She could refuse, but her father would just get more—

The silence was broken by Tomioka-san's water glass shattering in his hand. His chair fell to the floor as he surged to his feet, eyes wild and bulging. 

Haru felt her heart skip a beat. Not—

"Tomioka-san—" her father started. 

" _Fuck all of this_!" Tomioka-san screamed, and flipped the table. Food and drink and cutlery went everywhere. "Fuck you, fuck gratitude, like it's my problem your daughter's a delinquent—" Tomioka-san started stomping on any surviving dishes. "And you just assume I want to _marry_ her, she's in fucking high school, she's almost younger than my niece—"

"Tomioka—" her father started again. 

"No, I am through with this meat grinder company and _through with you_!" Tomioka-san threw off a servant who tried to restrain him and tried to jump through the shatterproof window, then ran over the same servant in his way out the door instead. 

Her father's mouth opened and closed several times. "That— He is _fired_."

"He didn't seem at all well," Haru said, because if that hadn't been an Akechi-induced psychotic breakdown she'd eat all the cauliflower that had been spilled on her. "May I be excused?"

"Yes, yes, go!"

She closed the door to her room carefully behind her. Picked up her phone. Put it down — the trip out of Mementos wasn't instantaneous. Took her time cleaning up, and picked it up again.

**Group chat:**

HO: WOULD ANYONE LIKE TO EXPLAIN WHY MY FIANCÉ HAD A PSYCHOTIC BREAKDOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF DINNER?  
MN: What?????  
MN: Are you all right?  
HO: I am fine. The dining room is less so.  
GA: Oh, good, I did get the time right.  
GA: Timing is so tricky, you know.  
GA: You're welcome. ;)  
MN: What are you talking about?  
HO: Why.  
GA: Because it was distracting you.  
GA: Obviously.  
MN: I think I'm missing something.  
HO: Tomioka-san didn't deserve that, Akechi-kun. He's not a bad man.  
GA: I did Tomioka-san a favor. He'll get over this and it stopped him from ruining his own life.  
GA: His Shadow was all torn up over picking this engagement and career advancement over a relationship he's actually interested in.  
GA: It's not like he's destitute as it is.  
HO: ...  
HO: Fine. Even if I agree with you about that.  
HO: Did it never occur to you that a small scandal, like a vice president's sudden insanity, wouldn't make Father any less attractive a target, but might make him more interested in new contacts?  
HO: Or that he might just replace this scheme with something even less convenient?  
MN: I agree the scandal is a concern, but I think future schemes we'll just have to take as they come.  
MN: But would anyone like to explain to ME how Akechi-kun is supposed to have caused a psychotic breakdown?

Oh right.

GA: I prefer the term "rage fugue".


	3. (into) JUNE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While working on this chapter, I went through and changed every reference to "Akira" to "Ren", and then I went and changed them all back. Heaven help me when I do a fic he's actually present in.

Both fortunately and unfortunately (and not unexpectedly), her father was distracted enough with the Tomioka-san fallout that he didn't notice or care about Haru slipping out Sunday morning. Fortunately, because this meant she could meet Makoto and Akechi in the space station immediately — try to get everyone on the same page. Unfortunately, because this meant she had to have the discussion immediately.

"I'm really sorry Queen. I… honestly forgot I hadn't mentioned it," Haru said, wincing. She'd said Akechi was untrustworthy, said he was doing Shido's dirty work, even implied he was capable of murder — but she had never mentioned the psychotic breakdowns. "Forgive me?"

"It's all right," Makoto sighed. "I'm getting used to it."

Haru winced again.

"So Crow, I'm sure you didn't _tell_ her, you never tell anyone anything either—"

" _Either_?"

"I'm not nearly as bad as she—"

" _Since you never tell anyone anything either_ , but did you know she knew you could do that?"

Akechi adjusted his helmet. (Had it gotten more masklike, less bulky?) "I didn't _know_ she knew, but I suspected." He looked at Haru. "You referred to me doing something to people's Shadows, and you've been right about everything else in the Metaverse so far."

And that… could very well be confirmation that he _hadn't_ killed anyone's Shadow yet. That she hadn't found any mental shutdowns because there hadn't been any. She probably shouldn't count on it, though. "So you're targeting Shido's enemies. To gain his trust."

He suddenly wouldn't meet her eyes. "That's— Well, you can see how that would be appealing to a man like Shido."

"And he doesn't care about your little… side projects?" Although come to think of it random weird psychotic breakdowns would provide cover for the politically motivated ones. For example, she _still_ hadn't identified the politically motivated ones.

"He… hopefully won't be connecting those to me."

Uh- _huh_. That was a risky game to play.

"Excuse me," Makoto said, raising her hand. "I meant to ask earlier, but — I don't suppose there's any chance that the Shido we've been discussing is someone other than the increasingly influential politician of that name?"

"Sadly, no," Haru told her.

"Drat." She looked at Akechi. "And you intend to take him down?"

His eyes flashed — ah, _there_ was good old homicidal maniac Black Mask. "I _will_ take him down."

"It sounds like that's a good idea," Makoto said. "How?"

And Black Mask was replaced by their teammate of the last (very long) two months who fought with a toy lightsaber and was ashamed to admit he lived in a group home and occasionally bickered with Makoto like ten-year-olds and very possibly hadn't killed anyone yet. "I'm… still working on that part." He shrugged, unconvincingly casual. "If this Treasure-stealing business works out the way you say it does, it might be a better choice than a rage fugue. More humiliating, at least. His Palace is huge, though."

" _Definitely_ better than a psychotic breakdown," Haru said. "His conspiracy would probably nurse him right through that."

…They wouldn't be able to nurse him through a mental shutdown, though.

…She decided not to mention that.

She wouldn't be the one to tell Akechi to start killing, if he wasn't already.

"Rage fugue," Akechi corrected.

This again?

To Haru's considerable annoyance, Makoto agreed "rage fugue" was a more accurate term than "psychotic breakdown".

"It's just that 'psychotic' is a clinical _term_ ," she said apologetically. "And… they're _not_. So… breakdown is fine, but media notwithstanding let's dispense with the psychotic part."

"Rage breakdown will work, I—"

"And 'breakdown' will do for in public but the full descriptive term will be an _Akechi_ breakdown."

"What."

Makoto smiled mock-sweetly. "Tell me you haven't been the cause of each and every one of these and I'll change my mind."

"I just _said_ — oh, never mind. We're here, can we at least try to make a little progress?"

They did not make much progress. The security level had gone _up_ overnight, and there were more, and more powerful, Shadows around. There didn't seem to have been any structural changes in the areas they'd already been through — all the navigation shortcuts seemed in place — but Defarge's scans indicated the layout _ahead_ had shifted some.

Haru didn't say 'I told you so', but only because she _hadn't_ told him so — she'd thought the incident might influence her father's behavior, not his Palace.

Makoto called a halt after they managed to defeat a trio of Ambassadors of Filth. "We can let the security level go down some more and get some more Stealthanols in case it doesn't. And Noir could do with more rest." She paused. "Also I could use a little more time to process that we are fighting _toilet demons_."

Fair.

On the way out, though, Haru remembered something, and stopped everyone in the vestibule. "Oh! One more thing, Queen. Crow, I assume you found my fiancé in Mementos?"

"Right."

"Mementos?" Makoto asked.

"Exactly." And she explained Mementos, with occasional input from Akechi. Akechi, apparently, had mostly been active in the first 'path', and the doors forward were sealed, but he had secured a route into the second by _running along the train tracks_. What.

"What," Makoto said.

"Very daring, I know," Akechi said. He sounded very proud of himself.

"I… suppose that's one way of putting it," Haru said, as diplomatically as she could manage.

"You're out of your mind," Makoto said. Before he could get defensive, she continued, "Of the breakdowns — how many are in Mementos, and how many have Palaces?"

"Um… about fifty-fifty, maybe?" Akechi looked up for a moment. "Yes, I think about half and half, of the successes."

"There are failures?" Haru asked. 

"Sometimes I can't get far enough into a Palace to get at the Shadow," he admitted. "Ishikawa's particularly bad, I don't think I've ever gone as far in as we've gotten there without seeing anything, but some others hang back, too."

While some Shadows leapt to personally confront intruders in their Palace long before they got near the treasure — like all the Palaces the team had hit except Shido — and Akechi could get to them sooner. For a breakdown he wouldn't even need to beat the Shadow enough to kill it, just hit it with the frenzy spell and get away. That made sense. "Do they still have Palaces afterwards?"

He shrugged. "I don't always check. It depends. If they get fired they often don't have a Palace in the same place, anyway. If they do still have the same Palace it's usually a drastically redecorated Palace, though, which can be funny. My middle school guidance counselor had a factory that turned into a junkyard."

Why was she not surprised that Akechi had had a guidance counselor with a Palace. "Was that the other Palace associated with a school? You said something about that, back at Kamoshida's Palace…" Which she still wasn't doing anything about, ack. 

"One of them." He hesitated, then continued. "That particular school had _two_ Palaces, actually. The guidance counselor and one of the teachers. She was…" Akechi shook his head. "Well, anyway. There was another high school I know of that had a student with a Palace — though that one went away, I guess the fugue made him rethink his life."

Haru wondered if that was the statue-puncher, but decided not to ask on the grounds that she didn't want Akechi to know she was watching for signs of his activities. 

"And I know of an elementary school principal with one. Fortunately she's just… aggressively micromanaging the staffs' personal lives and relentlessly babying the students, because her Shadow never came out to talk and I had to give up getting past the guard dogs. And there was another high school with a student council president who _could not let go_. That Palace is probably still there — if graduating didn't get him to stop centering everything on the school, a rage fugue probably didn't either."

Good grief. (Would that have been one of the college students? Had that not been connected to Shido at all?) "That… does seem like excessively many school-associated Palaces."

"I don't know," Makoto said thoughtfully. "School is very stressful. Especially high school. It's easy for students _or_ teachers to get a distorted view of what they are, and combined with how hard it can be for people our age to really know themselves…" She spread her hands. 

Akechi nodded. "Right. We can't locate the Palace unless we know the specific person involved, so most of them will be invisible to us — but I wouldn't be surprised if every single high school had a Palace. At least in Tokyo — the Metaverse doesn't seem to be as easy to access elsewhere."

Haru almost felt faint. A Palace for _every high school in the city_? That was… no one could possibly deal with that. Even Akira couldn't tackle that. 

Maybe they were wrong. She'd hope they were wrong. 

"Look, um. Ishikawa's Palace is more important than any of the ones I dropped, but I don't… _need_ to get through it right away. I'd like to by September, if possible, but I have contingency plans. And… any short-term problems for me, at least for the rest of the year, are likely to be more… reversible than getting involved with Shido. And since the Palace here _did_ change…"

Was he saying…?

"So if you're really worried about the fiancé thing moving the timeline up… we can put off the laboratory until we've… adjusted your father's attitude, or whatever you call it. But then Jikken before we do anything at Shuujin or wherever—"

Haru suppressed the weirdest urge to _hug_ him. "Akechi-kun. Thank you. And I promise we will get on Jikken right away afterwards! _Thank you_."

He flushed and looked away. "Shido is… bad to get involved with. Of course, a breakdown would probably put him off, too—"

" _No_ , Akechi-kun."

* * *

Days passed.

The security level dropped back to what it had been before. The Shadows didn't, but that might just be normal progression as they beat up cognitive robots for their IDs and passed into the factory belly of the space station.

Not constantly switching back and forth between Palaces made it easier, sort of — at any rate they could find more of a… rhythm. Get used to the way the Palace worked, how to navigate its rules. Which would be a disadvantage if it ever abruptly changed rules on them, but for the time being it made things go a little faster, and Haru wouldn't say no. 

HO: Are They taking any additional interest in him?  
GA: It's not something I'd hear about  
GA: Give me a few days and I can look into it

She wasn't sure her father was doing anything differently than he had the first time around. She just… had no idea. He never told her anything. He hadn't told her anything when she was being a perfect daughter, much less now.

GA: He's farther up the short list, but they haven't approached him yet  
GA: Still probably July  
HO: Thank you for checking

They sold more loot, got better weapons, better _armor_. Johanna learned Mediarama. Astarte learned Amrita Shower. Robin Hood learned Megidola — but not Samarecarm, not yet.

**Group chat:**

MN: My sister is now prosecuting a former government employee who attacked people on the subway with shoes back in April  
MN: Was that you?  
GA: While I haven't fully discarded the idea that Noir is a mysterious Metaverse entity, I think she made it clear she's not interested in rage fugues  
MN: YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN  
MN: Wait, what?  
GA: I'm not complaining  
GA: But she knows everything about the Metaverse and Haru Okumura had a dramatic behavior change at the beginning of the school year  
MN: How do you even KNOW that?  
GA: I looked into her when she started blackmailing me  
MN: You are creepy and underhanded.  
MN: So why have you mostly discarded the idea?  
GA: She is apparently genuinely concerned for Kunikazu Okumura's welfare, and I think lifelong conditioning is the only explanation for that  
HO: YOU TWO DO REALIZE I CAN READ THIS?

They tampered with controls and dodged heavy equipment. Akechi got better at switching Personas in the middle of a fight. Makoto found out about Haru's sinking grades and started drilling her on geometry in safe rooms. At least she was leaving the volleyball team alone. Haru hoped.

**Group chat:**

MN: I did notice you changing the subject the other day, Akechi-kun!  
MN: The government worker with the shoes. Was it for the conspiracy?  
MN: Did they want him out of the way?  
GA: …  
GA: I don't think the conspiracy cares about social workers.

They fought toilet demons, and Vampire Moths, and two different kinds of animate stars, and elephants, and statues, and mud, and hovering women, and Dark Suns which _always_ went straight for Haru's nuclear weakness, and robots, so many robots.

**Group chat:**

HO: Drugstore run tomorrow before the Palace, so I'll be a little delayed.  
HO: And I have a few more carrots.  
GA: All right, I'll hit a few vending machines.  
GA: Preferences, if there's a choice?  
MN: Anything but Manta.  
MN: Or Joylent.  
MN: Or Nastea.  
MN: Or Durian-au-lait.  
MN: Actually just get whatever you want and take the labels off.

Haru couldn't remember if they'd ever worked out what the factory was actually manufacturing, the first time around.

**Group chat:**

MN: Man who drove his car through a store display window?  
GA: I read about that.  
GA: It wasn't me.  
HO: I saw that, too, they found drugs in his system. So not Akechi.  
GA: Thanks?  
HO: Now, the man who drove through a store display window back in January, on the other hand…  
MN: Conspiracy?  
GA: No.  
GA: He was just sort of an asshole, mostly.  
GA: He had a Palace packed into his RESERVED PARKING PLACE.  
GA: It was an awards ceremony.  
GA: He would lose it if anyone breathed nearby.  
HO: I think we need to talk about every problem looking like a nail to you.

They fought through to the first airlock, and Makoto and Akechi were both indignant about the lack of logic in leaping through space. Haru assured them it was perfectly safe. She went first, to show how it was done—

—And there was the Treasure room on the other side, nebulous glow of the Treasure sitting in the middle.

The Palace was still smaller. The airlock network hadn't grown yet.

"Well," Haru said. "Infiltration route secured, then."

"It doesn't look very… steal-able," Makoto said.

"No, there's another step to make it materialize. We can't do it from here. Let's meet tomorrow, in — where's a good place in Shibuya to meet? _Not_ a Big Bang Burger."

* * *

That night, she dreamed about the Mementos depths, except her father was in the cell with Kamoshida and Madarame and Shido. He was listless and vague, perfectly content to be where he was, and barely seemed to recognize her. She woke up crying. 

This was to save his life by keeping him away from Shido. This was to save everyone he'd destroy, if he got involved in the conspiracy — to stop everything he'd turn Okumura Foods into. To help the workers who were being exploited even now. To stop him from trying to sell her off in the future, to someone worse than Tomioka. To _save his life_.

And if what was necessary for that did damage she'd have to fix in the future… well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

She wished she could do what Makoto did with Sae, but… she thought her father was farther gone than Sae. Even now.

The next day, Haru stole art supplies from Shuujin before leaving for Shibuya.

* * *

Haru had been planning to calligraphy the calling card herself, but Makoto and Akechi both insisted it would be too identifiable.

"No, I _know_ he can't identify my writing," Haru tried. "He's gotten it mixed up before. And it shouldn't ever come to the police examining it…" They didn't need publicity, this time — hopefully she could discourage her father from saying anything about the cause of his change of heart.

"Just in case," Akechi said firmly.

"I'm not sure I want to hear about discretion from someone leaving around a trail of breakdowns in everyone who annoyed him for the last six months," Makoto said. "We can't use a print shop, obviously — what if we trace it?"

It took three tries to get something they all agreed was acceptable, holed up in a cafe with schoolbooks piled up to camouflage their work from passersby. The calling card wasn't much like the Phantom Thieves' strident red. Instead, it was silver ink on black paper, a simple message followed by a flourished signature in Roman cursive style. 

_Kunikazu Okumura: You are overtaken by greed. I will free you of your distorted desires._  
_—The Count of Monte Cristo_

"I'll make sure he gets it," Haru said. "And then we have to steal the Treasure the next day. Are we ready?"

There was a long pause.

Makoto sighed. "Actually let's wait until a few more of your vegetables are ready."

* * *

**Group chat:**

HO: I tried to call both of you about visiting the airsoft shop this afternoon  
HO: Where were you?  
GA: Mementos  
MN: Conspiracy?  
GA: SPENDING MONEY  
GA: And a bead chain, you're welcome  
HO: That may be very helpful, Akechi-kun, thank you!  
HO: What were you up to, Mako-chan?  
MN: Student council stuff  
HO: …  
HO: You were poking around the volleyball team, weren't you?  
MN: …  
MN: Maybe?  
HO: Maybe we should ALL go to Mementos tomorrow

* * *

The vegetables were harvested. The drugstores were visited. The weapons were upgraded. The armor was improved. The medicines and remedies were restocked. Everyone was… more or less well-rested.

(There were _three_ of them, and one of the three was Akechi, but more importantly there were _three of them_ , when before they'd never had less than four _fighting_ at a time let alone the reserve—)

"I think we're as ready as we're going to be."

* * *

It was the same — her father's Shadow in its spacesuit, with its robots — and it was different — no launch countdown, the setting was just slightly changed. Mostly it was _hard_.

They weren't on a time limit for the battle this time, but Haru did not remember there being so many MDL-WKRs. To say nothing of the stronger ones. They were lucky with weaknesses on some of them, but others…

And there were so many waves of them. There couldn't possibly have been this many waves last time.

"Okay," Makoto panted in the lull after they managed to take down a MDL-DM. "New strategy."

"Oh good," Haru wheezed back. She was already fumbling for healing items and the second to last of the tomatoes. 

"I suggest Crow use that frenzying spell to make them take each other out."

Haru who lost her father wanted to overrule the idea. 

Haru who'd been leading the three of them for the last two and a half months was much better disposed to it. 

"Crow. Can you get them to attack each other, not us and not Okumura's Shadow?"

He grimaced under his helmet. "Not… with complete certainty. I have to time it when they're looking in the right direction, so their attention is on the desired target, and… mistakes happen."

He probably wouldn't have admitted that, back in April. "Do it."

After that it was easier. There were a few tense moments when a frenzied robot ended up pointing the wrong way and one of them had to jump in, and Akechi was burning through his magic _fast_ , but things were much less… fraught.

As in, she stopped being afraid they'd die, or have to run away with the Treasure unstolen. That was good.

* * *

They won.

Haru knelt by her father's Shadow as it sobbed. What should she say? Not _confess your crimes_ , that wasn't the point this time, but— "You have to make it better," she told the Shadow. Maybe it didn't matter what she said, since they were stealing the Treasure, but— "You need to go back, and _fix things_. People are more important than money. People are more important than prestige. You can be _better_."

She handed the treasure to Akechi, and had him lead the way out, and didn't take her eyes off him the entire time. And then insisted they all go out to Big Bang Burger even though all she wanted to do was collapse and she didn't think the other two felt any better.

Akechi stared down at his burger. "I can't decide if I'm starving or if I ate so many carrots and vending machine drinks I won't be able to eat another bite for the rest of the month."

"Same." Food consumed in the Metaverse was weird that way. "But if you don't eat now you'll be hungry later."

"And free food now," Akechi conceded, and dug in.

"Did the Treasure disappear when we left the Palace?" Makoto asked a little while later. Akechi shook his head and pulled it out of his bag. "A model spaceship? Are all treasures like this?"

"None of them are as fancy in real life as they look in the Metaverse, anyway…" Haru said. "We can probably sell that for something, though."

It had been… over an hour, now, counting the transit time. Surely the Palace had collapsed by now.

Surely it should be safe to stop watching Akechi, now.

It wasn't like he'd ever even been planning to kill her father, this time. He had no reason to.

This was silly.

"Everyone done? I'll treat us to dessert, too!"

* * *

Eventually, she couldn't keep them any longer. Akechi had that curfew. Sae was actually going to be home. Haru had to go home, too.

She stood before her front door for a long time.

It would be fine.

It had worked out every time except the once, and that had only been because Akechi snuck in after them and killed his Shadow, and that had _not_ happened this time.

It would be _fine_.

She unlocked the door, and went in.

Her father sat on the sofa in the living room, sobbing as if his heart was broken, not just stolen.

"Father?"

"Haru… I'm so _sorry_ …"

**Group chat:**

HO: It worked.  
MN: I'm so glad!  
GA: It better have worked after all THAT.  
GA: This means he shouldn't try anything else weird, right?  
MN: No more creepy engagements?  
HO: …  
HO: Right.  
HO: I may not be in school tomorrow.

* * *

She _was_ in school the next day. Her father insisted.

There were no press conferences, no public confessions. There were teleconferences instead, and board meetings she wasn't privy to, and very agitated board members showing up at the house complaining about the _cost_ of raising wages _everywhere_ or upgrading _safety_.

From what Haru witnessed, her father was absolutely immoveable in his reform decisions, but he wasn't able to argue them very persuasively, partially because he kept breaking down in tears instead. Having one's heart stolen didn't seem to help with concentration or focus or… much of anything else, actually, except for ethics.

Still. It was better than being dead. Or falling in with Shido, which would lead to being dead after doing unforgivable things.

**Group chat:**

HO: I'm really sorry about the delay.  
HO: We should be able to get back to the lab in a few more days.  
GA: Good.  
MN: Not that he hasn't been keeping busy.  
GA: If you're alluding to that thing with the mannequins, that was nothing to do with me.  
MN: What about the motorcyclist who drove into the movie theater?  
GA: What about your secret volleyball injuries spreadsheet?  
MN: HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT  
HO: MAKO-CHAN PLEASE!

GA: Incidentally, I checked, and he is no longer on the short list.  
GA: Or even the long list.  
HO: Good.

* * *

"To the Count of Monte Cristo," dream-Akira said, and raised a coffee mug. "I'm impressed."

* * *

Kamoshida was still menacing Shuujin, and Sae was being slowly crushed by her job, and somewhere out there Yusuke was under Madarame's thumb, and Shido loomed over everything like his damn cruise ship, and that wasn't even getting into whatever the _hell_ was going on in the bottom of Mementos. She didn't know where to find most of her friends or how to approach them when she did find them. There were still _so many problems_ , and still no Akira or Mona-chan to provide any guidance.

But they had time, now. _Haru_ had time. And she'd make it work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still an epilogue to go -- should be up soon.


	4. AUGUST (epilogue)

August (epilogue)

July was full of studying and exams, which Makoto and Akechi threw themselves into without prompting. Haru decided she should probably make more of an effort, too — give her father something to smile about. When summer break started, they dove back into the Jikken Palace.

All of them were expecting to find Principal Ishikawa's Shadow in the gleaming office perched up at the top of the laboratory. Honestly Haru was expecting to find a Treasure there, too, and had been wondering if it would be possible to talk Akechi into stealing it instead of rage-breakdowning the principal.

Instead, they had to ransack the office before they found a secret passage leading _down_.

"You're fucking kidding me," Akechi said flatly.

"Is that going to go all the way back down?" Makoto asked. "Or _farther_? Are there _sublevels_?"

"Your principal is a slippery slimy — _ass_ , Crow." Haru mentally censored 'bastard'.

Akechi pulled out Defarge. "…I think there's two more strong Shadows before we even hit a safe room."

There were. They did at least manage to make the safe room.

* * *

HO: I hate to say this  
HO: I really, really hate to say this  
HO: But it might be time to ask your employer about transferring schools for the next term  
HO: I'm not sure we're going to be able to finish by September  
HO: And even if we do…  
HO: Whatever we do, there will be a massive disruption of the school

GA: I've been thinking that, too  
GA: About the Palace, I mean

HO: Will he do it?  
HO: Arrange a transfer?  
HO: Or will he want you to do something more to, well, pay for it?

Oh hell what if _this_ was what started the mental shutdowns—?!

GA: Well  
GA: No  
GA: Shido won't arrange a transfer

The 'typing' indicator appeared and disappeared several times.

GA: He has no reason to, since I don't actually work for him.

What.

HO: How on Earth did you survive quitting??!!

GA: I don't think that's possible  
GA: I never started

_What._

HO: But

Haru found herself starting and discarding several messages.

HO: But the blackmail?

GA: I was planning to approach him at the time.  
GA: In the next few weeks. I was working on my pitch.  
GA: But then you showed up and knew everything, and it was always going to be a risk but that made it a  
GA: Substantially bigger risk

The lack of mental shutdowns. The lack of politically related breakdowns. The non-appearance of the Detective Prince.

GA: And with three people and more information the Metaverse provides a lot more opportunities than it did before, so…  
GA: It never became a worthwhile risk again.

The last five months rearranged in her head.

HO: But  
HO: What about the information?  
HO: About my father? The short list?

GA: Shadows in Mementos are really easy to interrogate  
GA: They won't shut up  
GA: I have a line on three or four of his associates there  
GA: One of them seems to have disappeared, but the others are as talkative as ever

The fuck. The actual fuck.

GA: And you assumed I was working for him so I just let you assume because back then I really valued anything you didn't know  
GA: Because you know everything  
GA: I probably should have said something since then though

The _fuck_.

HO: I see

She did see. Akechi wasn't working for Shido. He was still giving people psychotic breakdowns — rage breakdowns — _whatever_ because he apparently thought it was a good solution to… everything, but he wasn't working for Shido. He had, in fact, picked working with Haru and Makoto over his stupid Shido plan, and would rather work with them in the future to come up with a less stupid Shido plan.

HO: I'm glad you're not working for Shido, Akechi-kun.  
HO: We'll just have to step up our efforts in the laboratory.

How was that for making a change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes 'The Count of Monte Cristo'!
> 
> I'm intending to continue this 'verse a little sideways from this -- something that will be happening elsewhere in Tokyo as the Count and her sidekicks valiantly toil through the goddamn neverending laboratory Palace... ~~But first I need to decide whether Wakaba has a Palace, I really don't feel like she did canonically but it would open up some interesting possibilities storywise arrrgghhhhh...~~

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Checklists to Change the Future](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16739749) by [A_Lousy_Author](https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Lousy_Author/pseuds/A_Lousy_Author)




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